Feeding local economies: Bolivia’s edible biocultural heritage and rural territorial development
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Date
2016
Authors
Turner, Katherine
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Agriculture
Agriculture
Abstract
The biocultural heritage and diversity of localised food systems are resources that some communities, governments and other actors are mobilising to pursue their development objectives. However, further understanding is needed to determine how regimes of access and benefit surrounding this collectively held heritage are affected by its use in development projects. This dissertation examines rural development involving interventions in the food systems of the Central Valley of Tarija, Bolivia, and the ripple effects on the people who depend on these systems for their survival as producers, intermediaries and consumers. Core themes relate to personal histories and experiences of change and continuity in household economies and diet, and the role of biocultural heritage within localised food systems. These are examined in relation to processes of territorial construction and ordering through development programs and less planned processes of global and environmental change. Data were gathered through a food systems methodology, acknowledging the complex, interdependent relationships among production, transformation, exchange and consumption. The primary methods used were semi-structured interviews with local producers, intermediaries, consumers and government and non-governmental organisation key informants, complemented by participant observation, surveys, and document review. I found edible biocultural heritage to be a key resource in territorial projects seeking to alter current and future conditions of the Central Valley territory. From the 1970s onward, agricultural production possibilities available to research participant households have narrowed because of land enclosures, market integration, and other intersecting factors ultimately favouring transition towards commodity production (Chapter 2). Some smallholder viticulturalists, however, have incorporated grape production within multi-species agroecosystems to balance the risks and benefits of participation in the expanding commercial sector (Chapter 3). Edible biocultural heritage is being mobilised within multiple territorial projects in the Central Valley, including a gourmet project (Chapter 4) and an alternative food network around campesino gastronomic heritage (Chapter 5), with distinct ecological, economic and sociocultural implications. Whose heritage (or aspects of heritage) is carried forward and given precedence within development processes, and whose is rendered less viable and visible, has significant impacts on food systems’ form and function, the representations of local identity they manifest and the livelihood possibilities they entail.
Description
Keywords
Biocultural Heritage, Tarija, Bolivia, Food systems, Territory, Rural development
Citation
Katherine L. Turner and Iain J. Davidson-Hunt (2016) Tensions and synergies in the Central Valley of Tarija, Bolivia: commercial viticulture and agrobiodiversity in smallholder farming systems, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 40:6, 518-552, DOI: 10.1080/21683565.2016.1151473.
Turner, Katherine L., Davidson-Hunt, Iain J., Desmarais, Annette A., Ian Hudson. (2016). Creole hens and ranga-ranga: Campesino foodways and biocultural resource-based development in the Central Valley of Tarija, Bolivia. Agriculture, Special Issue “Distributed, Interconnected and Democratic Agri-Food Economies: New Directions in Research”, 6 (41): 1-33. DOI:10.3390/agriculture6030041.
Turner, Katherine L., Davidson-Hunt, Iain J., Desmarais, Annette A., Ian Hudson. (2016). Creole hens and ranga-ranga: Campesino foodways and biocultural resource-based development in the Central Valley of Tarija, Bolivia. Agriculture, Special Issue “Distributed, Interconnected and Democratic Agri-Food Economies: New Directions in Research”, 6 (41): 1-33. DOI:10.3390/agriculture6030041.